London, Mar. 13: A Court of Appeal has freed Labour life peer Lord Ahmed from a 12-week jail sentence that he had got for sending and receiving text messages minutes before he was involved in a fatal motorway crash in Rotherham.

Lord Ahmed, 51, who was jailed by Sheffield Crown Court on February 25 after admitting dangerous driving, was not present for the ruling by three judges in London, reports The Times.

He had served 16 days in prison and was due to be released on March 20 under the end-of-custody license scheme.

Allowing the appeal, Lady Justice Hallett decided to suspend the 12-week sentence for 12 months. She said that the imposition of a prison sentence had been justified but the court had been persuaded it could now take this “exceptional” course.

It is understood that Ahmed will be freed from Doncaster Prison on Friday.

Ahmed, from Rotherham, Yorkshire, had admitted sending three texts and receiving two others over some 10 to 15 minutes before the accident which left a man dead on the M1 near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, on Christmas Day
2007.

Ahmed had only to serve such a short part of his sentence because he qualified for release 18 days early under the Government’s end-of custody license scheme. (ANI)